Why Stormhoek slipped

Stormhoek and Mike asked the question “Why are Stormhoek not in the SA Blog Awards?”. At first, I felt very much ashamed of myself. How the hell could we forget the hand that pours the wine at our very much liked geeky gettogethers?! Shame on the SA blog community. Shame on me.

I do not want this to sound like an excuse. “Mia Culpa”. But…

Mike must be very serious about JOINING THE FRIGGIN’ CONVERSATION! since he always writes it in capital letters. And this is why Stormhoek slipped up. Do they ever read our blogs? Sure, I can understand that my blog might not be all that interesting to guys like them. Thing is I often read other blogs and comments on them, yet I NEVER see Graham nor Hugh commenting on ANY of my feeded blogs. Almost everyone on the blog awards has commented on my blog. If they have not commented, then they are a part of the MyBlogLog community and I saw their pretty little faces in my sidebar widget and went out of interest to see who they are and what they blog about! I’ve never seen Hugh nor Graham’s face on my widget.
At the 27dinner Graham gave a FANTASTIC speech. Why did he not join everybody that was there in the convo that was happening? Why did he not give his take on the event or commented and joined the conversation JOINED THE CONVERSATION?

That given, Chris is a member of MyBlogLog and frequents my bloggy fairly regularly. But that is still not the Stormhoek blog. That is Chris’s blog.

hat, my Stormhoek friends is why you missed out. That is why it is so damn important to JOIN THE CONVERSATIONS! When nominations time comes, you remember the guys you awed or fought with. The guys who you had convos in the blogosphere with.

Same goes for Vincent Maher. Almost EVERYONE reads his words of wisdom. He runs a great blog. The guy is a damn legend! Yet, he is not on there… Why?! Same reason I suppose. In all fairness, Vincent has read and commented on my blog a while ago. Unfortunately, one blog isn’t going to cut it. You need to be involved in the community.

Not so easy now is it? Time constraints. Deadlines. It is hard work to run a prominent blog. Posting great and interesting posts alone does not make for a successfull or popular blog. Its how active and involved you are within your community.

I might be wrong. Maybe you Stormhoek guys are active on other blogs. Just not the blogs that mattered when it came to the SA Blog Awards.

If there is any other reasons why you think they slipped, let me know (apart from the “We f@cked up” stuff… We know that already.) AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

technorati tags:stormhoek, 27dinner, geekdinner, blogging, sablogawards

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54 Comments to "Why Stormhoek slipped"

• Colin Daniels said: On 03/09/2007 at 7:56 am

  So let me get this straight….

  In order to be in the SA Blog Awards, not only do you need to have a killer blog, but you also need to be a comment troll and make damn sure that you stroke the egos of those that hold the magic wand? This is exactly why the SA blogosphere is so small and closed to the average folk who actually have day jobs and do some real work from time to time.

  Reading the names of the finalists and the repeated names in each category confirms my suspicions that these awards are basically a joke and should rather be called the SA Blog Awards Club Champs.

  What a shame it has to be like this and my hope is that maybe at some stage in the future they will become what they are supposed to be. Until then, the only people who care who the eventual winners are, are the finalists running along side them…

• Paul Jacobson said: On 03/09/2007 at 8:33 am

  Hey Stii

  I think you are right. It is a visibility thing and I don’t think Stormhoek is that visible as a blog. The wine certainly is and the answer may be to promote the blog with the wine. The blog is an awesome blog and everyone who enjoys wine should read it but if no-one knows about it then it basically doesn’t exist. It is similar to that adage that of you are not on the front page of Google you don’t exist.

  I see Colin’s point but part of blogging is community building and networking. If you just publish great content and no-one knows about you then no-one is going to vote for you. It isn’t ideal but that is how it works for now.

• Stii said: On 03/09/2007 at 8:34 am

  Okay Colin, valid point. Did you nominate? Did you nominate Stormhoek or Vincent’s blog? If you did, good for you. Problem is not everyone else thought like you. Why? Could the above reason not be one of them? Yes, it seems unfair and close minded. Yet, it happened. How do you propose to prevent it happening in the future? I’m sure the people organizing would like some feedback and ideas!

• capdog said: On 03/09/2007 at 8:54 am

  Completely agree with Colin about cronyism in SA Blog land. It’s really cliquey! If you’re not “in with the crowd” it makes no difference what content you produce.

• Vincent Maher said: On 03/09/2007 at 9:05 am

  Guys, from my own perspective I think the reason I wasn’t there is because I didn’t nominate myself and because no-one else thought to do so.

  I made a conscious decision not to put the badge on my blog because I wanted to be nominated out of merit, not because I am begging for the recognition - those who know me will know I am an arrogant bastard anyway.

  But I must admit, the overlap between the judges and the finalists _appears_ problematic. I judge another award and I I know sometimes the experts and the entrants overlap, but I think those who wanted to enter should have entered and those who wanted to judge should have judged. I don’t think it’s right that a judge should be in the shortlist, it just looks bad no matter how impartial you actually were.

  That said, I think its a great idea and I hope that these issues get resolved over time. The real value, as far as I can tell, is in seeing all the entrants (all of them) and so far that list has not been made public.

• Charl van Niekerk said: On 03/09/2007 at 9:45 am

  You know what, you’re spot on!

  To be perfectly honest, I am also a little surprised that I was never in the top list, even though I’ve been blogging for almost 3 years now and AFAIK I was one of the first people in SA to hold a technical blog. Personally I don’t comment easily on other people’s blogs unless I really have something to say. So although I do read a lot of people’s blogs, I usually don’t comment on many. I usually just scan through tons of feeds in Bloglines and extract some useful bits here and there.

  But then again, I’m obviously not the only person that does that. Although I know my blogs have hundreds of readers from all over the world, I rarely get comments. But when I speak absolute crap I quickly have somebody point it out to me. Sometimes I guess it’s good to speak crap just to get some reaction and make sure there’s still some people out there.

  But most of the blogs in SA that I would consider to be the best are not in the blog awards. Interesting.

  I guess Rafiq had a good point at the Geek Dinner in George. Sometimes just commenting to let others know you read their stuff and you’re appreciating what they’re writing is a good thing. However useless comments are really a waste of others’ time. I think more people should use linklogs and maybe there should be a distributed post rating system invented also.

  Interesting topic. This is the kind of stuff us geeks are not normally good at: selling ourselves (in terms of marketing, not prostitution naturally). We should hang around with marketers more and attend geek dinners.

• Vincent Maher said: On 03/09/2007 at 9:54 am

  “We should hang around with marketers more and attend geek dinners.”

  Charl, are you being serious? LOL

• Mark said: On 03/09/2007 at 9:55 am

  Some very interesting points brought up in this article and in the comments below. I agree with you Stii about the visibility aspect of a blogger, one must give in order to receive. It’s a big part of social networking. Mybloglog is a great tool that more SA bloggers should be using, it makes your presence far more noticeable!

• Mark said: On 03/09/2007 at 10:08 am

  Without having to leave loads of pointless comments for the sake of commenting!

• Jarred Cinman said: On 03/09/2007 at 10:14 am

  (Wordpress is bullshit! I write a whole post, forget my email address, get an error, click back and the form has been cleared…grrrrrr..and they wonder why open source programmers are targets in mass murders).

  For the record, I nominated Vincent for best blog and best writing on an SA blog. Best writing on a blog…um..that feels like an oxymoron, but then I guess that’s just cos I’m a cynical bastard. In terms of sheer blogginess, Vin is clearly leading the pack — hell, I probably wouldn’t even know what a blog was if it wasn’t for him.

  I guess there are lots of questions here, along with who gets to decide they are the last word on best blog anyway? Isn’t that just contrary to the whole long-tail thing anyway?

  Anyhow…I’ll stop short of saying Vincent is a legend: the last thing he needs is a bigger ego, and maybe that’s the greater good that’s being served by not having him win here

• Mike said: On 03/09/2007 at 11:08 am

  Hmmm… and so beginneth the Great SA Blog Awards Debate. Colin, I know this is not the case (because I rate you highly, and reflected as such in my nominations), but you do come across as a bitter puppy. Ease up on the chip there dude.

  When I reflected back on who I nominated, I chose blogs instinctively - out of ‘top-of-mind’ so to speak. I didn’t spend hours going through my reading list in intricate detail. Maybe I should have, but I didn’t.

  Colin you are right that the blogging community is a bit tight but regardless, that does play on one’s decisions. I nominated people who are a part of my blogging community, because they’re in my face, so to speak. That’s not ideal, but isn’t blogging more than just writing brilliantly (which you do)?

  With regards to the judging process. I was particularly bad at judging because I pretty much chose the top nominated blogs with one or two exceptions. I saw my role as a ‘judge’ to trust the community’s votes but also take into account the ‘hidden’ gems that should’ve had recognition. So my votes reflected your nominations almost completely, with one or two exceptions. Wouldn’t it be arrogant of me to assume I’ll represent a very subjective category better than hundreds of nominations?

  As for ‘begging for recognition’, I make no apologies. I spend my life begging for recognition - that’s how I earn money. I call it marketing. You see, I don’t have a big media employer behind me

• Dave said: On 03/09/2007 at 11:41 am

  Blogging is a social medium. Being social means interacting with others, therefore part of blogging is linking to others, commenting on sites and responding to comments on your own blog.

  Because nominations were determined by the blogging audience, blog visibility through commenting and interaction are essential.

  The SA blogosphere is not a closed club, its a completely open society, link to others, comment on blogs, but most importantly make your posts interesting ‘cos if your blog is boring then it may very well seem like a closed community.

  Finally, I agree with Vincent about the judges. I think that perhaps there should be two awards one determined by the general community (probably end up being the most popular), and another determined by a panel of judges e.g. Blog of the Year goes to XYZ and the Special Panelist Award goes to ABC.

  How can somebody, who has never read a blog, determine whether it is worthy or not for an ANNUAL award. How would they know if a political blog was the first to break a story on a certain subject back in April 2006. Do you really “know” a blog by just reading the last few posts?

• Pete said: On 03/09/2007 at 12:11 pm

  I completely get the perception that blogging in SA is pretty much all about cliques, I suppose it very much reflects the social trends of the blogging demographics. As a member on iBlog, I’ve noticed that not many of the users read any other blogs apart from those in our community, and this could be for many reasons, probably mostly due to the fact that the sense on interaction is greater.

  I don’t know if your comments about who did and who didn’t get nominated are really fair, Mike is right, I nominated blogs I read regularly because those are the ones that stick out. There are a lot of blogs out there and it’s tough to pick 3 per category..

  I did a post a while ago about expanding your involvement in blogging, at the time it was really aimed at iBloggers, but i think that some of the things said in there could e relevant to the entire sa blogging community.

  If you’re interested, read it here

• Wozafriday · Controversy around the Blog Awards said: On 03/09/2007 at 1:04 pm

  [...] there are people out there who think something sinister is behind the awards process this year (check the comments here). They believe that the SA Blogosphere is a “closed club” using words like [...]

• Colin Daniels said: On 03/09/2007 at 1:29 pm

  Wow. This has really turned into quite a debate. Clearly it was much needed…

  Before I say anything else, for the record I have nothing but respect for the organisers and applaud what they are trying to do, but…

  What I’ve gathered from the previous comments highlight a couple of the more pertinent issues:

  1. The blog awards should be trying to harness and encourage up-and-coming bloggers and not stroke the egos of those currently in ‘the elite’;
  2. Bloggers that are short-listed should be EXCLUDED from the judging process to maintain a separation of powers and bring in a different perspective;
  3. The nomination process should be more transparent and free of hidden agendas. This would avoid the current scenario of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”;
  4. More should be done to market the Awards outside of “the elite” which clearly dominates the list of nominees for this very reason. I know that the SA blogosphere is small but to have the same names pop up time and time again in the various categories? Common’….

  5. Until this is done, these Awards hold NO CREDIBILITY in my opinion - sorry

  Mike - I really don’t understand why you needed to make things personal - since I refrained from doing so and have nothing to gain from being vocal on this topic - but while we’re on the subject why do I come across as having a chip on my shoulder when all I really did was draw attention to the anomalies involved in the SA Blog Awards nomination and selection processes? I really don’t care if I was/or was not nominated and I’m very sorry if anybody if offended by my criticisms but… THAT”S BULLSHIT!

• Gregor said: On 03/09/2007 at 1:39 pm

  I think Colin not only emphasizes the problems surrounding the process of the actual awards, but furthermore highlights the predicament in our local blogosphere at the moment.

  I can only agree and hope that there will be a stronger sense of balance within the local blogosphere to come. What we can definitely take from this debate is a critical evaluation of the SA Blog Awards process, one which will hopefully develop the idea and its procedures.

• Mike said: On 03/09/2007 at 1:54 pm

  Colin - I was being personally complimentary up front, and surreptitiously sarcastic at the end - read it again dude.

  Your points:

  1. Who says the Blog Awards should be about up and comers? That’s like saying the World Cup should only include Bangladesh and Zim. Sheesh. That’s what the ‘Best New Blog’ category was there for. Consistent excellence needs rewarding - it helps us all raise the bar. I’m constantly competing against the likes of Cherry, Rich, Vince and you for eyes - that’s part of what drives us!

  2. I’m happy with this - but then who judges? I’m happy for it to be a community only vote but then we might never have seen some of the less ‘elite’ blogs on the shortlist…

  3. As I stated earlier, I was one of the evil judges with a hidden agenda and an itchy back. Let me state categorically that I was thrilled with how transparent the process was ‘behind the scenes’. I thought that Jon did a particularly good job of building an interface that gave us the best information to make the most informed decisions. Have you seen the back end of the site? Can you make a statement like that without having seen it? How many of the judges do you know personally? What back scratching went on that you know about?

  4. Dude, you didn’t see the nominees so how would you know who dominated the list? Among my 200+ nominees (the one’s I judged evilly) for funniest blog of the year were iBlog sites, M-Web blogs, ‘elite’ blogs, all sorts. I took a range of criteria into account… traffic, community interaction, instinct, content, writing ability… It wasn’t just farted out.

  There were thousands of sites listed on those nominations, which proves to me that the SA Blogosphere is both larger and more diverse than you or I know. But there will always be prominent bloggers. Do you hate Gaping Void, Micropersuasion and Scobleizer for the same reasons? (leave Arrington out of the discussion - ha ha!)

  5. C’mon. No credibility whatsoever? Then I challenge you to come up with a more solid model.

  Let’s do coffee soon. On me. Not literally. In a cup.

• Tyler said: On 03/09/2007 at 2:01 pm

  “leave Arrington out of the discussion - ha ha!”

  I look up to that man

• Wezzo said: On 03/09/2007 at 2:04 pm

  Stii I agree with some of your points and Colin none of yours :p.

  The ChumpStyle contributors have never “JOINED THE CONVERSATION” apart from myself on occasion, we have never been part of any blogging clique, our posts hardly get any comments and yet we are one of the most viewed (nothing to read really) blogs in SA. Interesting and entertaining content will get you hits and ultimately votes.

  Another point picking up from what Vincent said in his initial comment, not displaying the ‘nominate me’ banner is rather stupid - how are readers that are none bloggers ever going to know that there’s a competition running.

  (Hopefully this goes through, Wordpress gave my last one bullets)

• Chris Rawlinson said: On 03/09/2007 at 2:09 pm

  Hi guys,
  Nice debate you got going here
  Stii, hope all is well in the garden route send my regards to all.
  Anyway from now on as a Stormhoek guy I will comment under our main site if its anything wine related and my own blog if its just for laughs, then you have no more excuses to not feel ashamed.
  We are in the process of doing a local SA Stormhoek blog so we better be No 1 next time or else I might have to drink excessive quantitys of our product or just use a few Assassins !!
  p.s. Assassin is one of our tasty wines
  Cheers guys, chat soon and drink Stormhoek

• Mike said: On 03/09/2007 at 2:49 pm

  Me want Assassins.

  Tyler - ask Colin about Arrington. Rather look up to Richard McManus.

• Tyler said: On 03/09/2007 at 2:59 pm

  I know about Richard.. I prefer Michael

• Vincent Maher - Media in Transition » SA blogger gangbang turns into a snuff movie said: On 03/09/2007 at 3:54 pm

  [...] was going to sit on the fence, I really was. But now I am not. Have a read through this post and especially the comments, talking about why Stormhoek and I don’t feature in the finalists [...]

• Stii said: On 03/09/2007 at 5:57 pm

  LOL, in retrospect I can see why Colin said what he did in the very first comment. (I always seems to talk without mincing my words)

  Obviously some of you guys had grudges about how this thing was operated. Did ANY of you took it up with the organizers or was today simply the needle that popped the boil? This is maybe exactly why you should join conversations so that open wounds can be treated before they get infected. If you felt from day one that it is unfair that the judges should not be part of it, then why did you not drop Jon or Rafiq or Miguel an email saying “Hey, this is bullshit!”. Instead you let the wound fester… Its your own fault if that is the case. If not, then tell us at least what was said. Before today, the only one voicing his concern about the judges being candidates as far as I know is Eric.

  Yes, we are a clique. But a good kind that will involve the guy chipping in on our conversations and not give him the “Are you f’king CRAZY?” look. Hell, not so long ago we very chatting with Bryan from 24.com to make their blogging community more accessible so they can comment on our blogs and we can do so on theirs without having to first create a 24.com account. Thats another story.

  As far as the judges being candidates I honestly don’t have a problem. I do not know all of them. I’ve met Dave, Mike and Rafiq and I can honestly say I think they are stand-up guys. Good as the salt of the earth. They sure as hell don’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word “cronyism”!

• graham knox said: On 03/09/2007 at 7:31 pm

  First of all, I am amazed and honoured that some of you see Stromhoek as part of the SA world.
  We don’t fit in anywhere else, so we would have to creat a new country, if you didn’t. I remember that there was a “Republic of Hout Bay” once. What happened to that?
  I do see that there seems to be more than one South Africa. One of them is part of 24.com. Do they have to create new account to be able to be part of the “CONVERSATION” ? See Vincent above. Maybe someone can explain to me how a blog is not part of the global blogosphere but is an SA blog or one of the regional SA blog worlds.
  I’m planning to go to Johannesburg at the end of the month (27 dinner, maybe even SA Blog Awards - I can get a wig and a beard) and it will be best to know where I fit in.
  As far as Vincent goes, how can you have an award for “Best anything” and you don’t recognise readership and merit, just lobbying?
  Graham

• Miguel dos Santos said: On 03/09/2007 at 10:31 pm

  Wow, this is a great conversation. First the SA Blog Awards logo saga and now the nominations saga. It obviously shows the South African blogosphere are passionate about their, well, sphere. We now just need to use that enthusiasm constructively.
  There are definitely better ways to operate the SA Blog Awards more fairly. I can imagine how difficult it would be to accurately judge hundreds of blogs in your assigned category in a week, some great blogs are bound to slip through the cracks.
  Stormhoek and Vincent Maher were nominated, they just weren’t shortlisted by whoever was responsible for judging that category.
  There should probably have been more time given for the judges to properly go through all the nominated blogs and judge them all equally through a predefined judging criteria, and also have more alternative judges per category.
  I think we should all probably discuss the ground rules and judging criteria and operating procedures more thoroughly before starting the awards next time around. Then we’ll definitely have a smashing and accurate blog awards.

• Catherine Monahan said: On 03/09/2007 at 11:35 pm

  Hi…

  I’ve not commented on a lot of the SA sites before but i have noticed all the comment on Stormhoek and Vincent not being voted into the awards. What i would say, is that i think Vincent’s point 4 regarding this topic is very valid. I don’t think it’s necessary to go back-patting all our fellow bloggers etc. nor comment for the sake of commenting. I think it’s more about expressing ourselves, sharing our experiences with others and hoping that some people have fun with us along the way…I’m Catherine from Stormhoek by the way and i started writing the blog whilst we were on our roadtrip around the UK. Just some stuff for fun really because that topic was about entertainment and wasn’t meant to intellectually stimulate anyone at the time - just amuse people and make them think differently. Having travelled around the UK (I was born in SA and have been in London for 9 years) and having met a lot of bloggers throughout our trip, something that struck me most was that blogging truly is about sharing. It’s also about educating…remember the days when we entered something into “search” and hoped for the best, only to find “you have to pay $25.99 for the solution”!! Well, nowadays, the “blogosphere” gives us the ability to find, share and enhance our knowledge like never before. We always support our friends and fellow bloggers and we’ll comment when we have something relevant to say. I also have to join Graham Knox in the comment about only being South African. The blogosphere is truly global nowadays and we should embrace that as well as our own community. Keep coming with the advice though - it’s all great and we’re listening and i hope to see some of you whilst i am in Cape Town from the 18th to 25th March!

  Hope to meet you - am in Cape Town from the 18th for 10 days…

• Catherine Monahan said: On 03/09/2007 at 11:38 pm

  Excuse the duplicated last line!

• The controversial 2007 SA Blog Awards at Wired Gecko said: On 03/10/2007 at 7:24 am

  [...] Stii’s post about Stormhoek not making it into the nominations of the 2007 SA Blog Awards has stirred up quite a debate about how blogs make it into the nominations and how the whole process if judged.  A couple bloggers who maintain pretty good blogs were not nominated and have varying views on that (take a look at Colin Daniels’ comment for his views which then sparked off a fairly heated debate in the comments to Stii’s post). [...]

• » Blogging is Dead! - The Nas/2007 SA Blog Awards Saga Mashup said: On 03/10/2007 at 2:18 pm

  [...] Why Stormhoek slipped [...]

• Henk Kleynhans said: On 03/11/2007 at 9:12 pm

  I have absolutely nothing to add to this debate. I’m purely commenting for the sake of commenting and so that no-one would think me a ‘fluckr’.

  p.s.

  Q: Why did the Mexican push his wife off the cliff?
  A: Tequila

• The Muso said: On 03/12/2007 at 10:53 am

  Hi Everyone - great discussion, though I must admit to having only read the first half of the comments.

  On the Stormhoek issue, you just need to cast your eye down the posts on their blog and see 0,0,0,2,0,1,0,2 etc in the comments section to know that while the site may be well-trafficked, it lacks the basic element of conversation. While I admire what Graham and co are achieving, it is still essentially a “corporate” outlet that serves to promote a product and little else. I’m not able to criticise further as I don’t read the blog, but I’m sure that this is the reason why Stormhoek has not featured in the awards.

  On the greater awards issue, I’d like to try to dispel the “clique” impression in some way. Stephen and I were judges on the awards panel this year because we (actually he) was active in the debate in formulating the structure of the voting and nomination process, nothing more. That we have also made the final selection I would say has everything to do with the fact that The Muso is one of the most trafficked blogs in the country, rather than because we know anyone in particular (which we don’t, except through threads like these.)

  So while the process is not yet perfect (asking the public to vote twice is a bind, judges potentially don’t know their allocated category well enough), I think that things are definitely headed in a positive direction. As Stormhoek themselves commented, this only illustrates how strong the culture really is.

• Cru Master said: On 03/12/2007 at 12:27 pm

  I must say, this is the first time I’ve been a little disappointed in Stormhoek. I thought their digg at the SA Blog Awards was little immature and a bit disrespectful to the people who have put in a lot of hard work to make them happen.

  Muso, I couldn’t agree more on your sentiments about the Stormheok site - it is essentially “corporate” - and I think its very easy for a lot of people to ’sniff’ that out.

  You know instead of, in a tongue and cheek manner, criticizing the awards - what a great opportunity this would have been for Stormhoek to come in and actually help build the awards into something great. The marketing opportunity could have been massive for them - perhaps they could have sponsored the awards ceremony - or indeed sponsored a case of wine for the Best Food Blog - or you know what, even got Hugh Macleod to be a guest judge in the process (thus helping out with the judging process).

  Furthermore, there was absolutely no mention of the awards on the site - so how on earth do they expect their readers to vote and/or even know about the awards (I am presuming that most of their traffic is non SA).

  In fact did Stormhoek even know about the awards? I recall that a bloggers day at the farm was proposed on the day of the awards ceremony…

  And why not take this debate to their site, on their post about the issue….I’d like to see if any of the comments are moderated.

  Stormhoek have achieved so much - blogging (and the communities involved) has helped them get there - don’t then turn on those very people - who incidentally are actually trying to make the blogging scene here in SA bigger and better.

• Why do we Blog? said: On 03/12/2007 at 1:01 pm

  [...] post on Stormhoek’s failure to make it into the SA Blog awards (and the subsequent torrent of comments has made me wonder even more. It seems that to be perceived as a good blogger / blog site you need [...]

• youngBLOOD · Fallout continues over SA Blog Awards controversy said: On 03/12/2007 at 2:46 pm

  [...] week (which is unlikely since the SA blogosphere is so small in the first place take a look at the comments on stii’s [...]

• Sj said: On 03/12/2007 at 4:32 pm

  [The ChumpStyle contributors have never “JOINED THE CONVERSATION” apart from myself on occasion, we have never been part of any blogging clique, our posts hardly get any comments and yet we are one of the most viewed (nothing to read really) blogs in SA. Interesting and entertaining content will get you hits and ultimately votes. ]

  Have to agree with the Chumpstylers, we don’t know anyone on the committee (is there one?), don’t comment much, are not part of any blogging clique, hardly know anyone from the blogging community in SA and simply work hard at making our blogazine http://www.represent.co.za as fabulous as we can with a growing database over the year and a half we have been running it. Our readership mainly voted for us/nominated via the button which we only put on a few days into the competition… Thanks dudes! Sharpile!

• Sj said: On 03/12/2007 at 4:35 pm

  Sorry… two and a half years of Represent!

• Charl van Niekerk » Blog: SA Blog Awards: Time to Vote! said: On 03/12/2007 at 4:59 pm

  [...] know) that it’s ridiculous to think they aren’t getting more recognition. This started quite a discussion on blog marketing [...]

• tgw said: On 03/12/2007 at 6:07 pm

  I’m veeeeery interested to know the story behind the 6 finalists in the overseas category where there should have been 10. Because believe me, some were definitely nominated more than once and yet an astounding 4 places remain unfilled? what part of being a south african blogger posting everyday from overseas doesn’t meet the criteria?

  And what about the ‘technical glitch’ which showed a whole list of blogs first thing when the finalists were announced and then mysteriously disappeared only to be replaced with the so-called regulars as the day progressed??

• Rouvanne said: On 03/12/2007 at 9:52 pm

  This debate is pretty cool - as a newbie to all of this, I am still just damn chuffed to have made it to the finalist stage in the first place, so I can definitely say that i know of no special circle of friends or bloegerbond - in fact I don’t actually physically know another blogger…

  Ultimately - the SA Blog Awards are important. The way that they are handled in future will depend on the input that, I suppose, we all provide. The more of us that get involved, the more we promote the whole blogging community, the bigger it is going to become, and that’s what we are all wanting at the end of the day.

  I very rarely comment on others blogs, except as Catherine Monahan says when I have something that I really feel I need to say. But then, I don’t get many comments on my own, and being new to all of this, don’t really know what the norm is. I mean hell – at one stage, feeling sad and all alone out here is this wide cyber world (before becoming a finalist… damn!!!) I even wondered why the spammers had stopped dumping under my posts… at least I would have known my site wasn’t totally at the bottom of the pile!

  So I say – Go SA Blog Awards – and all those involved!

• tuberider said: On 03/12/2007 at 10:15 pm

  Hi guys,

  I’m also a newcomer to the blogging world and entered myself into the blog awards including the overseas & new blogs 2006 categories.

  The fact that only 6 blogs made it into the overseas category really makes me wonder when (I know it sounds presumptous to say this), but my writing is of a quality at least on par with all the finalists in the competition. I also have a lively interaction with the community on my blog site. Admittedly my blog is not of the “tits & arse” kind.

  It does seem that in order to get nominated you have to increase your visibily among the community that makes the decisions and to do that it helps to be a judge. This is a no-brainer and for a start they could correct that next year.

• stii.za.net » Blog Archive » Setting commenting straight! said: On 03/13/2007 at 7:11 am

  [...] you have something to say you can comment your points of view much like a lot of you did on the Why Stormhoek slipped post! That, my dear friends is what I meant. I always, ALWAYS go look at someone’s blog/site [...]

• tresblue said: On 03/13/2007 at 8:58 am

  Perhaps you should also consider that Graham Knox is a far better marketer than you give him credit for. This debate has given Stormhoek amazing publicity far more so than if he had been nominated or won an award.
  In advertising as he well knows, the adage goes..
  “there is no such thing as bad publicity”

  Respect

• Stii said: On 03/13/2007 at 9:07 am

  So very true… No one will “forget” Stormhoek ever again!

• The controversial 2007 SA Blog Awards … revisited at Wired Gecko said: On 03/13/2007 at 9:38 pm

  [...] debate over the 2007 SA Blog Awards has been pretty intense.  I had an opportunity to chat to Jonathan Cherry, the [...]

• Kelly said: On 03/15/2007 at 10:24 am

  So what you are saying is that the SA Blog Awards is not representative of the full South African Blogosphere but only of the community that have been nominated. That explains then why some of the best blogs are not nominated. Now I understand, thanks.

• Groogle » Blog Archive » MyBlogLog – a networking tool or just another traffic building tactic? said: On 03/16/2007 at 1:19 pm

  [...] here is where I argue against the idea that the ‘visibility aspect of a blogger’, as according to Mark is so important. Why should I have to make my presence more noticeable via a service like MyBlogLog, [...]

• Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » South Africa: Blog Awards Mashup: Blogging Is Dead, Where Art Thou Stormhoek?, Conflict Of Interest, and Elite Bloggers said: On 03/16/2007 at 3:22 pm

  [...] African wine blog), Colin Daniel’s blog and Vincent Maher’s blog make it to the final? Stii.co.za says that Stormhoek and Vincent Maher have not joined the conversation: that, my Stormhoek friends is why you [...]

• Does the SA Blogging “elite” dominate Muti? | nicharalambous.com said: On 04/02/2007 at 3:59 pm

  [...] the very heated debate on stii’s blog regarding the SA Blog awards, the “elite” bloggers were mentioned [...]

• jackee said: On 07/19/2007 at 4:27 pm

  I also shocked that Stormhoek is not in the SA wine blogs. In my opinion stormhoek is the number one wine blogs at this time so why they ignored them.

• Is the bloggers bubble bursting in SA? : nicharalambous.com said: On 10/17/2007 at 2:27 pm

  [...] this years blog awards we saw the turning of the tides. That was the beggining of the real age of the blogosphere. The truth is that we all [...]

• Interesting debate taking place… | The Cru said: On 11/27/2007 at 2:13 pm

  [...] Read it here [...]

• stii.za.net » Blog Archive » SA blog awards - Tips, Tricks & Unspoken rules said: On 01/29/2008 at 7:00 am

  [...] trying very hard not to give Sessa a butt-cramp, but hell, conversations… Be visible. Now. See, once the voting list is out there, everyone starts to read 8 times as [...]

• Fallout continues over SA Blog Awards controversy at youngBLOOD said: On 02/02/2008 at 2:45 pm

  [...] - which is unlikely since the SA blogosphere is so small in the first place - take a look at the comments on stii’s [...]

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Filed in: Blogging, GeekDinner!, Social Web, South Africa by: Stii